Amherst's Climate Goals

Create an official, compensated, BIPOC-led Committee of the Town tasked with overseeing planning and policy review and developing a Racial Equity Action Plan.

Develop a transparent process for appointing Town Board and Committee members.

Provide cultural sensitivity and anti-racism training for all Town Board and Committee members.

Engage student groups in municipal planning processes.

Develop a community vision and action plan for increasing equity in local planning.

Create multilingual resources about how to access services during an emergency.

Tailor outreach strategies to reach target groups, i.e. Non-English speaking residents and residents without phone or internet access.

Expand sustainability staff capacity within the Town.

Partner with public schools, colleges, advocacy organizations, and other climate allies.

Integrate climate justice resources and networking activities into existing Town activities and events.

Expand the Town’s online climate action resource hub.

Seek external funding in partnership with local/regional stakeholders to support the expansion of local climate justice coalition-building.

Facilitate dialogues between affordable housing stakeholder groups.

Pilot deep energy retrofit projects in partnership with the Amherst Housing Authority or other affordable housing owner.

Support the development and implementation of a Sustainable Capital Improvement Plan to decarbonize and climate-proof the Amherst Housing Authority’s building portfolio.

Develop a building energy retrofit outreach and engagement campaign in partnership with Mass Save and the Community Choice Aggregation.

Establish policies that enable tenants to receive financial benefits from energy efficiency savings by ensuring that tenants’ overall costs do not increase along with energy efficiency upgrades.

Develop a building energy retrofit program and campaign focused on single-family residential properties.

Encourage widespread adoption of efficient electric air-source heat pumps through outreach and incentives.

Expand clean energy outreach and engagement to homeowners in partnership with Mass Save and the upcoming Community Choice Aggregation (see Strategy RE1.1). Target neighborhood associations and landlords of small (four or fewer units) properties.

Adopt a local building energy benchmarking and disclosure bylaw.

Identify common local building operational energy profiles using Building Energy Benchmarking data and outline potential decarbonization pathways for each.

Explore the potential for residential energy performance disclosure policies at the local level that encompass all housing in Amherst.

Opt-in to PACE Massachusetts by majority vote of the Town Council.

Actively encourage property owner participation in the program.

Promote the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA)’s existing Business Member Directory.

Develop partnerships with local green building and clean energy professionals.

Co-sponsor and develop a state-run Passive House and high-performance building training program.

Update zoning to require building contractors to have members with training in high-performance building.

Create equitable and inclusive community participation and decision-making frameworks within the CCA.

Offer a tiered rate structure that addresses different customer priorities and needs.

Conduct a Solar Resource Assessment for the town that can guide municipal and private solar development efforts.

Adopt a targeted town-wide solar zoning bylaw that guides development to favorable locations and balances ecological, economic, social, cultural, and other values of the community’s abundant natural lands with the need for renewable energy.

Support and encourage private investment in local renewable energy resources.

Support local businesses and regional workforce development through partnerships, promotions, and networking opportunities.

Develop the former Hickory Ridge Golf Course as a multi-use community space, including green space, recreational amenities, and community gardens.

Collaborate with apartment complexes to develop a pilot Community Greening program.

Continue to deepen community participation in open space and recreation planning.

Produce and distribute accessible, multilingual information and publications about publicly-accessible recreational and open spaces in Amherst.

Expand the Mobile Market to new locations and extend the operating season.

Use the Mobile Market as a strategic platform for distributing information about free and affordable food resources in Amherst2.

Develop a sustainable long-term funding model for the Amherst Mobile Market.

Work with the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority to establish a Local Food Bus Route

Explore additional possibilities for increasing year-round access to fresh healthy food

Update the Town’s zoning bylaw and the Site Plan Review process to require the integration of green space and nature-based solutions that mitigate urban heat, infiltrate stormwater, and protect soil health.

Conduct a town-wide analysis of existing soil health, soil function, and soil carbon sequestration.

Work with the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority (PVTA) and private apartment complexes to pilot a shuttle bus connecting the E Hadley Rd neighborhood directly to Hadley’s nearby commercial center on a convenient schedule.

Improve path and trail safety, accessibility, and maintenance.

Offer zoning and/or permitting incentives to developers to include charging stations in new or existing residential and commercial parking lots.

Offer ZEV and charging infrastructure financing support through the upcoming Inter-Municipal Community Choice Aggregation (see Strategy RE1.1)

Facilitate discounted individual market-rate ZEV purchases.

Develop a rolling five-year Zero-Emission Municipal Fleet Policy and Plan to transition municipal and school fleets to hybrid and electric vehicles.

Adopt a zero waste bylaw establishing targets and timelines to minimize local waste streams, reduce Scope 3 emissions (see sidebar, right), encourage materials re-use, and evolve a local circular economy.

Collaborate with regional organizations, institutions, and businesses to encourage and facilitate the move toward zero waste.